Жил-был пёс

a film by Eduard Nazarov

«Жил-был пёс» (Once Upon a Dog), a Soviet animation short based on a Ukrainian folk tale, is 40 this year. Forty! I can’t find the exact date, why not the 7^th of March then. The film features the Ukrainian folk songs «Та косив батько, косив я», «Ой там на горі» and «Ой до бору стежечка». The Dog and the Wolf are voiced by Georgi Burkov and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, respectively. I read that the “original” Wolf had to be redrawn to harmonise with the actor’s voice and ended up looking like Dzhigarkhanyan. The Wolf’s immortal lines include «Шо, опять?!» (“What, again?!”), «Щас спою» (“Now I’ll sing”) and «Ты заходи, если что» (“You drop by, if something’s up”).